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en-usTechdirt. Stories filed under "health"https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/td-88x31.gifhttps://www.techdirt.com/Thu, 7 Dec 2017 06:17:29 PSTFCC Boss Lies Again, Insists Net Neutrality Harms The Sick And DisabledKarl Bodehttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171204/08140938732/fcc-boss-lies-again-insists-net-neutrality-harms-sick-disabled.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171204/08140938732/fcc-boss-lies-again-insists-net-neutrality-harms-sick-disabled.shtml
For a decade now one major ISP talking point against net neutrality is that it hurts the sick and disabled. Verizon, for example, has tried to pretend that net neutrality rules hurt the hearing impaired because it prevents them from getting access to prioritized medical services like video relay or other technologies. Comcast has frequently trotted out this argument as well, as in an FCC filing (pdf) earlier this year claiming that net neutrality rules simply must die because they're preventing the sick and disabled from getting access to advanced telemedicine technologies:

"...the Commission also should bear in mind that a more flexible approach to prioritization may be warranted and may be beneficial to the public. For example, a telepresence service tailored for the hearing impaired requires high-definition video that is of sufficiently reliable quality to permit users “to perceive subtle hand and finger motions” in real time. And paid prioritization may have other compelling applications in telemedicine. Likewise, for autonomous vehicles that may require instantaneous data transmission, black letter prohibitions on paid prioritization may actually stifle innovation instead of encouraging it."

You may be shocked to learn that this isn't, nor has it ever been, true. Both the discarded 2010 rules, and the 2015 rules, carve out mammoth, tractor-trailer-sized exemptions for medical services. In the 2015 rules, the FCC was careful to distinguish between "Broadband Internet Access Services (BIAS)" (generalized internet traffic like browsing and app data) and "Non-BIAS data services," which are often given prioritized, isolated capacity to ensure lower latency, better speed, and greater reliability. VoIP services, pace makers, energy meters and all telemedicine applications fall under this category and are exempt from the rules.

You'll be equally shocked to learn that this has nothing to do with helping the sick -- and everything to do with making more money. ISPs want to eliminate the paid prioritization restrictions so they can sell content and service companies an unfair advantage in the market. Deals that give industry giants prioritization, optimal routing and the lowest latency, while startups, non-profits and educational institutions sit twiddling their thumbs at a notable disadvantage. This goal is precisely why Comcast is already walking back its promises on this front as repeal nears.

You'd think, as FCC Boss so immensely familiar with the rules he's so eager to dismantle, that Ajit Pai would realize that the claim that net neutrality hurts the sick is a dated and grotesque bit of scare mongering. Yet last week, as he tried to defend himself from massive criticism that he was selling out consumers and the health of the internet, Pai gave yet another speech (pdf) during which he doubled down on the idea:

"By ending the outright ban on paid prioritization, we hope to make it easier for consumers to benefit from services that need prioritization -- such as latency-sensitive telemedicine. By replacing an outright ban with a robust transparency requirement and FTC-led consumer protection, we will enable these services to come into being and help seniors."

Again: there is no "outright ban," and the rules clearly already carve out giant holes for this traffic. Not to be outdone, this claim that killing net neutrality magically helps the sick was also included in the FCC's facts-optional fact sheet (pdf) it circulated last week to "set the record straight":

"FACT: Restoring Internet freedom will lead to better, faster, and cheaper broadband for consumers and give startups that need priority access (such as telehealth applications) the chance to offer new services to consumers."

But again, nothing in the rules stopped this from happening already, meaning that Pai once again feels the need to lie about something that can be fact-checked by anybody willing to spend a little time actually reading the 2015 rules (pdf). Of course when you're pushing what's potentially the most despised bit of tech policy kerfuffle since SOPA with little to no support from the actual public, manufactured bogeymen are apparently all that's left to fall back on.

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]]>disinformation-nationhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20171204/08140938732Fri, 22 Sep 2017 19:39:00 PDT'Smart' Hospital IV Pump Vulnerable To Remote Hack AttackKarl Bodehttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170920/09450338247/smart-hospital-iv-pump-vulnerable-to-remote-hack-attack.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170920/09450338247/smart-hospital-iv-pump-vulnerable-to-remote-hack-attack.shtml
By this point, the half-baked security in most internet of things devices has become a bit of a running joke, leading to amusing Twitter accounts like Internet of Shit that highlight the sordid depth of this particular apathy rabbit hole. And while refrigerators leaking your gmail credentials and tea kettles that expose your home networks are entertaining in their own way, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the same half-assed security in the IOT space also exists on most home routers, your car, your pacemaker, and countless other essential devices and services your life may depend on.

The lack of security in the medical front is particularly alarming. The latest case in point: security researchers have discovered eight vulnerabilities in a syringe infusion pump used by hospitals to help administer medication to patients intravenously. The flaws in the Medifusion 4000 infusion pump, manufactured by UK medical multinational Smiths Group, were discovered by security researcher Scott Gayou. The device is utilized to deliver medications, blood, antibiotics and other fluids to critical care patients, patients undergoing surgery (anesthesia) -- and newborn babies.

The flaws were severe enough to warrant a new warning from the Department of Homeland Security, which issued an advisory that, like similar past advisories, rather downplays the fact these flaws could be utilized by a skilled hacker to kill somebody covertly:

"Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow a remote attacker to gain unauthorized access and impact the intended operation of the pump. Despite the segmented design, it may be possible for an attacker to compromise the communications module and the therapeutic module of the pump.
Impact to individual organizations depends on many factors that are unique to each organization. ICS-CERT recommends that organizations evaluate the impact of these vulnerabilities based on their operational environment and specific clinical usage."

Both the FDA and DHS have ramped up the attention they're giving such vulnerabilities, recently having issued similar first ever warnings about flaws in pacemakers by St. Jude Medical, which can be similarly abused to kill patients. And while this is all wonderful news if you're a wetworker operating in an environment where such flaws take years to discover much less fix, it's decidedly less fun for the companies being criticized for half-assed security measures. In most cases, the companies impacted make it their top priority to downplay the risks involved, as the Smiths Group did in its statement on the vulnerabilities:

The possibility of this exploit taking place in a clinical setting is highly unlikely, as it requires a complex and an unlikely series of conditions.

Except six of the vulnerabilities in question simply involve the use of hard-coded credentials, the same problem that has plagued the home router market for years. For its part, Smiths says it's working hard to implement a fix for the flaws -- that might be released in January 2018. In the interim Smiths is urging hospitals to assess the risk, change the default login credentials, and disconnect these devices from the network where necessary. But considering the low quality of IT support in most hospitals (a major reason for a massive spike in hospital ransomware attacks) -- there's certainly no guarantee of any of these mitigation measures actually happening.

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]]>killed-by-apathyhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20170920/09450338247Thu, 20 Apr 2017 18:10:12 PDTCorporate Sovereignty Used To Bully Ukraine, Colombia And Italy For Protecting Public Health And The EnvironmentGlyn Moodyhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170417/06160437169/corporate-sovereignty-used-to-bully-ukraine-colombia-italy-protecting-public-health-environment.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170417/06160437169/corporate-sovereignty-used-to-bully-ukraine-colombia-italy-protecting-public-health-environment.shtmlCorporate sovereignty provisions in investment treaties have become much better known than they were when Techdirt first wrote about them in 2012. Despite that growing awareness, and widespread outrage at the idea that corporations can request secret supra-national tribunals to make awards of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars paid from public funds, companies continue to use the system to bully governments into changing their policies. For example, here is the US pharmaceutical company Gilead successfully deploying corporate sovereignty against the Ukrainian government, as originally reported by Investment Arbitration Reporter:

The dispute with Gilead, which Ukraine's Ministry of Justice had characterized as an $800 million dispute, relates to the drug sofosbuvir (sold by Gilead as Sovaldi). Sovaldi, a highly effective treatment for chronic hepatitis C, has been available in Ukraine -- a country reportedly home to over 2 million people infected with hepatitis C -- since 2015, but the company has lately been locked in a struggle over the ability of generic companies to market cheaper versions of the drug in Ukraine.

According to details of the settlement released by Ukraine's Ministries of Justice and Health, the settlement sees Gilead refrain from pursuing its damages claims against the country, and will see the company offer Sovaldi (and a combination therapy called Harvoni) at a reduced price.

Also, following the settlement, a generic competitor of Gilead has seen its own competing drug de-registered by authorities.

By de-registering the generic competitor to Gilead, the Ukrainian government is allowing the US company's to maintain its monopoly on the drug. In Colombia, the Swiss drug company Novartis also used the threat of a corporate sovereignty lawsuit, in this case to put pressure on the government there to stop it from issuing a compulsory license for a key anti-cancer drug, which would allow low-cost generics to be produced:

Leaked letters (PDF) to the Ministry of Trade and Industry show how Novartis threatened to resort to international investment arbitration for an alleged violation of the Swiss-Colombian bilateral investment treaty (BIT), which was signed by both countries in 2006. This undemocratic procedural mechanism, better known as Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS), forms part of many trade agreements and allows an investor from one country to bring a case directly against the country in which they have invested before a private international arbitration tribunal, without going through local courts first. This threat has undoubtedly influenced the decision of the Colombian health authorities to stop short of pursuing a compulsory license, focusing only on a price reduction.

It's not just drug companies that try to use ISDS litigation to force governments to reverse their policies. Here's an oil and gas exploration company that is unhappy with a decision by the Italian parliament to ban new exploration and production activity within 12 nautical miles of the coast because of concerns for the environment and the high risk of earthquakes:

Rockhopper Exploration is fighting for compensation from Italy after it banned offshore drilling, leaving the company unable to develop one of its oil and gas fields.

The Aim-listed explorer said that it had begun international arbitration against the country for "very significant monetary damages" over the loss of future profits from its Ombrina Mare field.

Since Rockhopper is an oil exploration company, it must have carried out detailed studies on the geology of the field before deciding to drill for oil and gas. Either its geologists were negligent in not spotting that there was a risk of earthquakes which made the area unsuitable for exploitation, or the company knew about the dangers, and decided to continue with its plans anyway. In any case, it's ridiculous that Rockhopper thinks the Italian government owes it money for "lost future profits" that clearly never existed anywhere other than in the company's fantasies.

This is a general problem with corporate sovereignty claims: they often invoke some mythical "future profits" as if those were indisputable and guaranteed. But business is based on rewarding calculated risk-taking, and that includes the risk that hoped-for profits never materialize. ISDS is an attempt to remove the risk of investment from companies, and place it squarely on the public's shoulders, without any quid pro quo.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110812/17572915505Tue, 7 Jun 2016 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: Antibiotic Resistance Is (Not) Futile...Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110718/11193615149/dailydirt-antibiotic-resistance-is-not-futile.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110718/11193615149/dailydirt-antibiotic-resistance-is-not-futile.shtmlfound in the US, there's a bit of concern that medicine could regress significantly in the face of uncontrollable bacteria. We've had antibiotic drugs for about 70 years now, and we've grown accustomed to the effectiveness of these drugs. Hopefully, we can stay ahead of drug-resistant microbes with new pharmaceuticals or phage therapy.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110702/01453214948Fri, 13 May 2016 03:24:00 PDTAt The Behest Of Big Pharma, US Threatens Colombia Over Compulsory Licensing Of Swiss DrugGlyn Moodyhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160512/07462934424/behest-big-pharma-us-threatens-colombia-over-compulsory-licensing-swiss-drug.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160512/07462934424/behest-big-pharma-us-threatens-colombia-over-compulsory-licensing-swiss-drug.shtml
As Techdirt readers well know, Big Pharma really hates compulsory licensing of its patented drugs, where a country steps in and allows an expensive drug to be made more cheaply in order to provide wider access for its people. Such massive pressure is applied to nations contemplating this move, that even global giants like India quail. A new story is unfolding that reveals just how far companies are prepared to go in order to prevent it from happening. It concerns Colombia's possible use of a compulsory license for the drug imatinib, sold under the name Glivec, and used to treat leukemia. Despite the fact that the company holding patents on the drug, Novartis, is Swiss, the US has started to lean heavily on Colombia in order to persuade it not to go ahead with the move.

KEI has obtained a copy of a letter from Andrés Floréz at the Embassy of Colombia in Washington, DC, to the Minister of Health in Colombia, reporting on a meeting between embassy officials and Everett Eissenstat. He's the Chief International Trade Counsel for the US Senate Committee on Finance, under Senator Orrin Hatch. Apparently, Eissenstat conveyed quite forcefully his views on the negative consequences for Colombia if it decided to issue a compulsory license on the cancer drug Glivec:

Eissenstat mentioned that although Novartis is not an American company, the US pharmaceutical industry was very worried about the possibility that the case would become a precedent that could be applied to any patent in any industry which, according to him, could lead to the reputation of our country's respect for intellectual property rights being viewed as impaired and Colombia becoming one among those countries that would have special treatment...

Einssenstat also mentioned that, if the Ministry of Health does not correct this situation, the US pharmaceutical industry and related interest groups could become very vocal and interfere with other interests that Colombia could have in the US.

Nice little country you have there -- be a shame if something happened to it. Stat News mentioned a couple of forms that "special treatment" might take:

A free-trade treaty between the two countries went into effect four years ago, which obligates Colombia to comply with various international trade laws. Florez also cautioned that issuing a compulsory license for the Novartis drug may "weaken support" for bringing Colombia into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact between 12 countries in the Asia and Pacific regions that must still be approved by Congress.

Senator Hatch was so opposed to the idea of a compulsory license on the patent for a $40+ Billion cancer drug made by a Swiss company that he was willing to find an extremely sensitive area for the Colombian people and use it as leverage. The [Paz Colombia] peace process in question is the hopeful conclusion to decades of fighting in the country with guerrilla rebels that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The US is willing to jeopardize the entire "Paz Colombia" peace plan, all because Big Pharma is outraged a developing country might dare to use its international right to issue a compulsory license. As KEI Director James Love commented:

The use of these back channel methods of conveying threats and pressure is common, and the leak of these two letters provides insight into why governments that have the right to issue compulsory licenses rarely do. The fact that after meeting with Eissenstat, the Colombian Embassy connects the patent dispute to the funding of the Colombian peace process illustrates how the United States can link health and national security together in ways that a harmful to both.

It can surely only be a matter of time before Colombia obediently toes the line, and recognizes that Big Pharma's patents and profits are much more important than the health and lives of its people.

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]]>destroying-lives,-destroying-peacehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20160512/07462934424Tue, 10 May 2016 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: What Kind Of Blood Do You Have?Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110603/04102714544/dailydirt-what-kind-blood-do-you-have.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110603/04102714544/dailydirt-what-kind-blood-do-you-have.shtmlblood, and if you're not too queasy, check out these links.

Some rare blood types are more valuable than others. Only a few dozen people with Rhnull blood (aka the golden blood) are known, and their blood is an extraordinarily 'universal' blood type that can be donated to a wide population of people because it doesn't trigger an immune response. (On the downside, the people with this blood type have very few donors available to them.) [url]

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110603/04102714544Tue, 3 May 2016 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: Keeping Mosquitoes Away...Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110606/23570714576/dailydirt-keeping-mosquitoes-away.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110606/23570714576/dailydirt-keeping-mosquitoes-away.shtmlmentioned some plans for destroying all mosquitoes, but that's probably not the most environmentally-friendly way to go about preventing the spread of mosquito-borne infections. Also, some people seem to attract more bites than others, but how well do mosquito repellents actually work, anyway?

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110606/23570714576Mon, 2 May 2016 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: Do You See What I See?Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111103/05152216618/dailydirt-do-you-see-what-i-see.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111103/05152216618/dailydirt-do-you-see-what-i-see.shtmlBlindness or visual impairment affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. Thankfully, cataract surgery and other treatments have reduced the effects of some vision problems, but unfortunately, there are still a few forms of blindness that aren't very treatable. Until someone figures out how to transplant an entire eyeball (which some doctors are actually working on), here are a few other ways that might help restore some sight.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111103/05152216618Mon, 4 Apr 2016 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: You Know The First Guy To Run A Marathon Died Immediately After, Right?Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110531/04010214484/dailydirt-you-know-first-guy-to-run-marathon-died-immediately-after-right.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110531/04010214484/dailydirt-you-know-first-guy-to-run-marathon-died-immediately-after-right.shtml

Exercise isn't going to help you lose weight necessarily. There's plenty of data to suggest that our bodies adapt to exercise -- and metabolisms slow down as people lose weight. Exercise is still good for you, but again, after some point, the benefits peak -- so for significant weight loss, you need to exercise and change your dietary habits. (duh?) [url]

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110531/04010214484Wed, 30 Mar 2016 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: Making Backups Of Your OrgansMichael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110408/03273813825/dailydirt-making-backups-your-organs.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110408/03273813825/dailydirt-making-backups-your-organs.shtmlOrgan transplant procedures are becoming amazingly complex and reliable. Still, it's a good idea to try to keep your original equipment in good working order. But if you do start having an organ fail on you, it's nice to know there are some options -- and the options are getting better. Here are just a few advances in getting donor organs that don't necessarily involve other people dying.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110404/01551813763Fri, 11 Mar 2016 03:27:00 PSTIndia Finally Bows To US Pressure: Promises Not To Use Compulsory Licensing For DrugsGlyn Moodyhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160308/09432133833/india-finally-bows-to-us-pressure-promises-not-to-use-compulsory-licensing-drugs.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160308/09432133833/india-finally-bows-to-us-pressure-promises-not-to-use-compulsory-licensing-drugs.shtml
Techdirt has been covering India's complex relationship with pharma patents since at least 2009. In particular, we've been following for years India's use of compulsory licenses to provide its people with access to life-saving drugs at affordable prices. Naturally, Big Pharma companies in both the US and EU hate that, not least because it might encourage other countries to do the same. As a result, the US pharmaceutical industry in particular has been applying political pressure to get India to stop using compulsory licenses, even though they are a perfectly legitimate policy tool under the WTO TRIPS Agreement. Two years ago, Techdirt noted that India was already becoming more cautious on the compulsory licensing front, and a new report from Reuters suggests it may finally have bowed to US pressure:

India has given private assurances that it will not grant licences allowing local firms to override patents and make cheap copies of drugs by big Western drugmakers, a U.S. business advocacy group said.

The comments were revealed in a submission last month by the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), which is reviewing global intellectual property laws for an annual report identifying trade barriers to U.S. companies.

There's been no official confirmation from the Indian government of that decision, nor an explanation of why it has decided to give in, assuming it has. The Reuters article mentions the fact that India had been placed for two years in a row on the infamous Special 301 Report's "Priority Watch List". That's one of the favorite ways in which PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, tries to bully countries -- or even entire continents -- into doing its bidding. But giving up compulsory licenses just to stay off the Special 301 naughty step seems an incredibly high price to pay, for reasons explained by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI):

"If such an agreement [between the Indian government and the US drug industry] in fact exists, this is extremely troubling news ... this sort of pressure is basically a declaration of war on poor cancer patients," KEI said in its own submission to the USTR last week.

Given the USIBC document that Reuters says it has seen, it seems likely that the Indian government has indeed given some sort of assurance to the US companies. But the fact that it has been kept quiet shows that the politicians are fully aware of how unpopular the move will be once the Indian public finds out about it. That provides some hope the policy could be reversed if enough people in India start complaining, as happened recently with software patents.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110404/04564013765Wed, 24 Feb 2016 17:00:00 PSTDailyDirt: Age Is Just A NumberMichael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110331/04202813715/dailydirt-age-is-just-number.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110331/04202813715/dailydirt-age-is-just-number.shtmlaging process has been studied for a long time, but no one has found the silver bullet that stops people from getting older (unless there are some immortals hiding among us). Still, medicine is making some slow progress towards understanding how we age -- and how we might prevent ourselves from aging.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110331/04202813715Fri, 15 Jan 2016 17:00:00 PSTDailyDirt: Stop! Don't Eat That...Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110121/03514712763/dailydirt-stop-dont-eat-that.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110121/03514712763/dailydirt-stop-dont-eat-that.shtmlcompletely healthy diet is a totally different task. There are countless fad diets that don't really work or aren't as healthy as they're supposed to be. On top of all that, we should also keep an eye out for the outbreaks of foodborne illnesses and food safety recommendations. Maybe people who drink all their calories aren't totally crazy....

If you've been thinking about learning how to code, take a look at our Daily Deals for a collection of online courses to help you program and/or master some professional skills.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110112/03574712633Wed, 30 Dec 2015 17:00:00 PSTDailyDirt: Imagine There's No Cancer...Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/12132313551/dailydirt-imagine-theres-no-cancer.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/12132313551/dailydirt-imagine-theres-no-cancer.shtml2015, an estimated 1.6 million patients were diagnosed with cancer and over half a million died from it. We've previously pointed out some cancer research that could lead to promising new treatments, and it looks like we're making significant progress in the fight against the many forms of this deadly disease. Using the body's own immune system to fight cancer is a growing strategy that seems to be working. Check out a few of these minor successes.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110318/12132313551Fri, 11 Dec 2015 17:00:00 PSTDailyDirt: Warnings Are Not Hazardous To Your HealthMichael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/04002513544/dailydirt-warnings-are-not-hazardous-to-your-health.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110318/04002513544/dailydirt-warnings-are-not-hazardous-to-your-health.shtmldown, diabetes is no longer on the rise, and consumption of sugary soda is also down. (NB: It probably wasn't warning labels alone that caused these trends.)

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110318/04002513544Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:00:00 PSTDailyDirt: Did You Wash Your Hands?Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110222/03122013207/dailydirt-did-you-wash-your-hands.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110222/03122013207/dailydirt-did-you-wash-your-hands.shtmldoctors need to be reminded sometimes how important hand washing with soap is. This isn't just a conspiracy from the big "soap industry" for people to use more soap. Plenty of soap is bought and wasted, but hopefully, more people will use soap appropriately and wisely around the world....

Before you go off to wash your hands, take a look at this holiday gift guide for some awesome deals at the Techdirt deals store.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110222/03122013207Tue, 17 Nov 2015 03:02:27 PSTTPP Says Food Health Policies Must Be 'Science-Based,' Except When That Would Harm ProfitsGlyn Moodyhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151114/03255332817/tpp-says-food-health-policies-must-be-science-based-except-when-that-would-harm-profits.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151114/03255332817/tpp-says-food-health-policies-must-be-science-based-except-when-that-would-harm-profits.shtml
The good news is that we finally have the complete text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The bad news is that it runs to 6,194 pages, not including dozens of "related instruments" and "side chapters." There is no way that anybody could read through and fully understand the implications of all of that -- certainly not before it comes to a vote next year. But luckily, that's not necessary. Gone are the days when a single commentator would be expected to offer profound insights of a treaty's entire text. Instead, in our Internet-based world, it's very easy to do things in a highly-distributed fashion, parcelling out pieces of the task to many topic experts who carry out deep analysis in parallel.

The [TPP] negotiators decided to locate provisions on "Trade in Products of Modern Biotechnology" for agricultural trade (Article 2.29) in Chapter 2, "National Treatment and Market Access for Goods," apparently believing that "modern biotechnology" does not pose SPS issues about which there might be controversy.

That is, the TPP text tries to sidestep all the heated controversies over the possible safety issues of modern biotechnology by omitting them completely from the chapter dealing with this aspect. The other discovery made by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy concerns a requirement to use "science-based" approaches when TPP countries establish their food safety rules:

It is crucial to understand how scientific evidence is subordinated and occulted as Confidential Business Information to realizing trade objectives through the regulatory process. Under the TPP rules and trade policy more generally, what trade and regulatory officials deem to be "appropriate" levels of protection are judged on whether SPS measures to provide that protection are potential or "disguised" trade barriers. Such judgments require a use and understanding of "science" that is filtered through confidentiality requirements, which are antithetical to the peer review that scientific consensus methodologically requires. TPP SPS Committee consultations about the science underlying SPS measures "shall be kept confidential unless the consulting Parties agree otherwise" (Article 7.17.6).

TPP does not require traditional rigorous science where results are published openly, subject to peer review, but permits the use of "confidential business information," where results are withheld and there is no peer review. How that will work in practice is shown by a recent decision by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that there was "no convincing evidence" that glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the US and the world, is an endocrine disruptor. As The Intercept discovered:

The EPA's exoneration -- which means that the agency will not require additional tests of the chemical's effects on the hormonal system -- is undercut by the fact that the decision was based almost entirely on pesticide industry studies. Only five independently funded studies were considered in the review of whether glyphosate interferes with the endocrine system. Twenty-seven out of 32 studies that looked at glyphosate's effect on hormones and were cited in the June review-- most of which are not publicly available and were obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request -- were either conducted or funded by industry. Most of the studies were sponsored by Monsanto or an industry group called the Joint Glyphosate Task Force. One study was by Syngenta, which sells its own glyphosate-containing herbicide, Touchdown.

TPP guarantees that companies can provide SPS Committee consultations with their own confidential research in a similar way, and that no outside scrutiny will be permitted unless those companies agree. As well as allowing secret "scientific" evidence to be used, the SPS chapter also gives TPP signatories an option to ignore scientific evidence completely on the grounds that it lacks "economic feasibility":

The "economic feasibility" of the science-based SPS measures to provide the appropriate level of protection is formulated in this provision: "Each Party shall . . . select a risk management option that is not more trade restrictive than necessary to achieve the sanitary or phytosanitary objective, taking into account technical and economic feasibility" (Article 7.6c). "Economic feasibility" provides TPP members with a crucial loophole against providing SPS measures that are science-based.

In other words, TPP requires decisions on food safety and animal welfare to be "science"-based, where "science" includes unpublished studies carried out by companies, except when the science shows unequivocally that more stringent measures should be taken to protect health. In that case, countries are allowed to put profits before people, and to ignore the facts completely.

This latest analysis from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy is significant not just because it will help to inform the debate around TPP, and whether it should be ratified. It is also important because it reveals what will almost certainly be the approach taken in TAFTA/TTIP too. Since that is nowhere near finished, unlike TPP, that means it is still possible to put pressure on the negotiators not to sell out on public and animal health as we now know they have done in TPP.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111119/02264716845Wed, 7 Oct 2015 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: Yet Another Flu Season...Michael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101119/16380911952/dailydirt-yet-another-flu-season.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101119/16380911952/dailydirt-yet-another-flu-season.shtmlflu (aka the influenza virus) can be just annoying to some, but it's also a deadly threat that can't be ignored. There's a new flu vaccine every year, but that's a hit-or-miss game -- with some years being much less effective than others. However, it's still a good routine to get into -- until someone finally develops a universal flu vaccine. If you haven't gotten your flu shot reminder. Here it is. YMMV.